Canadian Researchers Get $3.2 Million Worth of "New Opportunities

OTTAWA, December 2, 1999 - At the Innovation Canada Conference today, Dr. David W. Strangway, President and CEO of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), announced an investment of $3.2 million for awards to help launch the research careers of 21 new faculty members at 10 Canadian universities.

Made under the New Opportunities Fund, these awards will provide infrastructure support to help attract and retain high-quality researchers at a number of Canadian universities.

"The New Opportunities Fund is at the core of the CFI's mandate," said Dr. Strangway. "It allows universities to attract the best researchers, and helps them become internationally competitive in research areas of priority for Canada."

The projects, which were approved by the CFI Board of Directors, include:

• a facility at Dalhousie University for investigating cystic fibrosis at the molecular level;
• equipment at the University of Toronto to study the impact of aerosol chemicals on the climate and public health; and
• a genome-sequencing facility at the University of British Columbia for clinical cancer research.

Since its launch in August 1998, the New Opportunities Fund has enabled Canadian universities to provide 296 high-quality researchers with the advanced equipment and facilities they need to undertake leading-edge research.

Today's announcement brings the total CFI investment in infrastructure projects to $454 million-representing 632 awards in 74 universities, colleges, hospitals, and other research institutions. The CFI provides 40 percent of the project costs, while partners from the public, private, and voluntary sectors provide the remaining 60 percent. Funding partners have so far contributed $681 million to infrastructure projects in universities and research institutions.

The CFI is an independent, not-for-profit corporation established by the federal government in 1997 to address an urgent need of Canada's research community: new, state-of-the-art research infrastructure. The CFI has been entrusted with a capital investment budget of $1 billion, and its investments are made in partnership with all levels of government, as well as with the private and voluntary sectors. Its work focuses on health, the environment, science, and engineering.

The Innovation Canada Conference runs from November 30 to December 2, and is the first event of its kind to bring together more than 500 leading innovators from government and academia, as well as the business and voluntary sectors. For information about the conference, visit the CFI's Web site at: www.innovationcanada.org. 

Canada Foundation for Innovation / Fondation canadienne pour l'innovation 

New Opportunities /  FundFonds de relève

List of approved projects by institution /
Liste des projets approuvés par établissement

New Opportunities FundFonds de relève

University of Alberta

• Molecular Biology of Beef Cattle Production

University of British Columbia

• Interdisciplinary Speech Research Laboratory
• Team Leaders for Genome Sequence Centre
• Technology Development Facility for High Throughput Genomics
• Core Research Facility for Gene Transfer and Gene Function
• Parallel Computing Facility for Research in Science and Engineering
• In Vivo Origins of Immunity and Autoimmunity

University of Calgary

• The Molecular Biology of Gene Therapy: Basic Mechanisms and Applications in Health and Disease

Dalhousie University

• The Molecular Basis of Cystic Fibrosis

University of Guelph

• Selective Transition Metal Catalyzed Transformations of Unprotected Carbohydrates and Polyols for Polymer and Biomedical Applications

McMaster University

• The Development and Application of Automated Synthesis and Combinatorial Chemistry for Radiopharmaceutical and Inorganic Pharmaceutical Research

University of Ottawa

• The Hospital Patient Database - A High Quality Clinical Database of Hospitalized Patients
• Développement de nouvelles méthodologies asymétriques et synthèse de produits naturels

Queen's University at Kingston

• Thin Film Materials and Growth Mechanics

Simon Fraser University

• Noble Gas Imaging Facility

University of Toronto

• Laboratory for Atmospheric Aerosol Chemistry: Implications for Climate Change and Public Health
• Structure and Function of Molecular Chaperones
• Molecular Genetics of High Density Lipoproteins in Atherosclerosis
• Parallel Computing Research Laboratory

Ryerson Polytechnic University

• Research Infrastructure for the Application of Spatial Analysis at the Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity.